The Kings are on a roll since last few games as they win three on the trot despite Shikhar Dhawan’s second hundred of the season. This time they have defeated the table-toppers Delhi Capitals who were high on confidence this season. After early fireworks by two Caribbean southpaws, Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran made sure that Delhi Capitals never get back in the game as they defeated them by five wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
It all started at the toss as Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to bat first at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Delhi went in with one change as they rested the inform Anrich Nortje for Daniel Sams whereas Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetymer made their way back in the playing XI.
Kings XI Punjab On A three Match Winning Streak after losing 6 Games
On the other hand Kings XI Punjab made one change with Jimmy Neesham coming in for Chris Jordan. Batting first the Delhi Capitals side it was all about the Shikhar Dhawan show as he notched up a fine hundred as he took down the attack on the Kings XI Punjab bowlers.
He then went on to become the first player in the history of the IPL to score consecutive hundreds in an IPL season. In the end, Delhi Capitals managed to post a decent total of 164 at the end of 20 overs as it was an utter collapse by all other batsmen in the side.
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In the chase, Kings XI Punjab lost both their openers in the powerplay itself. It looked like the Kings side are on the downside but then struck Gayle storm as he smashed the young Tushar Deshpande for a 26 run over bringing Kings XI Punjab back in the match.
Nicholas Pooran too followed Gayle path as he too started the attack on the Delhi Capitals bowlers. In the process Gayle, Pooran and Maxwell lost their wickets in the chase but they had done their job for the night as Deepak Hooda and Jimmy Neesham took Punjab to pass the finishing line.
We will have a discussion and see where we can improve: Shikhar Dhawan
The man of the match of today’s game between Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab was Shikhar Dhawan for his fine hundred. At the post-match presentation, Dhawan said that he took the responsibility of batting through the entire innings as he was hitting the ball pretty well.
He recalled his test debut against Australia where he was scoring runs frequently just like the current season of the IPL. Dhawan mentioned that the Capitals side will look to rectify the mistakes they committed in this game and will look to come back strong in the next match.
“Today, it happened that way (that no one could stick around with me). I took the responsibility of holding one end up and was also hitting the boundaries when I got the chance. On my Test debut, I remember I was scoring this frequently,” Shikhar Dhawan said.
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“I took proper rest and was fresh for this match. I didn’t know ( when asked if he knew that he was the first man in IPL to score back-to-back tons). We gonna have a discussion and see where we can improve. We have been playing very good quite consistently. This is not going to put us down. We would try to come back stronger,” Shikhar Dhawan added.
